Email: Greetings from the Golden Triangle
We are currently on a bus back to Chiang Mai. We’ve spent the last week in the north near where the boarders of Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos meet.
Thailand Video Overview
We spent three weeks visiting three major areas of the country: Bangkok, Northern Thailand and Southern Thailand. In Bangkok, our major activities were viewing the temples and seeing the city by foot and by ferry. In Northern Thailand we visited Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Southern Thailand, our last stop, was experienced on the island of Ko Pha Ngan.
Japan by Bullet Train
We took a 17 day family trip to Japan in June 2002. It was the first time the girls had been to Asia, so it was a quite different experience for them.
Japan: Hiroshima
Our first extended bullet train ride to Hiroshima was a great event. Once there, we spent time exploring the beauty of Miyajima Island and also visiting the important and sobering sights associated with the atomic bombing at the end of World War II.
Email: Greetings from Japan – The Bullet Train
Nearly everyone has heard of Japan’s famous bullet train. Our first experience was not actually riding one. Instead our first experience was in a train station. We were waiting for our train to come when, whoosh, one flew by at full speed.
China: Luoyang
We left Beijing’s West Train Station at 12:45pm on Wednesday to begin our ten hour journey to Luoyang. We were able to get hard seats (for about $12 each) on a ‘K’ train, which is an express that makes very few stops.
China: Xian – Terracotta Warriors
It was a 5 1/2 hour journey on a double decker express ‘K’ train from Luoyang to Xian. The next morning we went back to the train station to catch the bus to the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Nothing prepares you for the enormity of seeing the warriors in lines as you first enter.
Email: Update from China – Luoyang
It is Thursday night and we are in Luoyang, which is southwest of Beijing. We arrived here late last night after a 10 hour train ride in “hard class.” Hard class is not necessarily the seats (they were padded) but it refers to the cheapest seats of travel – one the Chinese use.
Email: Adventures in China – The Train
My butt hurts and it’s only one hour into our 17 hour train ride from Xian to Chengdu. We only expected to spend two days in Xian but we had to stay three days because there weren’t any seats available to Chengdu.
China: Kunming and the Stone Forest
After leaving the relaxation of Dali, we visited Kunming, another large Chinese city. The major highlight of this visit was a day trip to the Stone Forest.